Endure and Survive: A Post-Apocalyptic Expectation of Violence for Survival

"Endure and Survive."

A key phrase and overall theme to the game and HBOmax television series “The Last of Us”. The story follows Joel and Ellie as they embark on a cross country road trip to the West coast to try and find Joel’s brother Tommy and deliver Ellie to The Fireflies, an opposition group to the government organization FEDRA (Federal Disaster Response Agency) who have established Quarantine Zones across the United States. Does a cross country trip during a global pandemic that’s causing humans to become infected with a Cordyceps virus and attack other people sound fun to you? Well, that’s weird but you’ll love this then!

In a landscape of so many post apocalyptic/dystopian media from video games (Dying Light, Days Gone, Left 4 Dead) to television shows and movies (i.e. The Walking Dead, 28 Days/Weeks Later, The Handmaid's Tale, Blade Runner 2049) audiences are often exposed to frequent violence as the driving point of the characters and their survival. Something so far The Last of Us has done as a shows seems to be laying down a theme of survival from a humanity standpoint, while there are moments in the show so far where there have been confrontations with both humans and “infected”, the aging character of Joel who is in his early 50s, realistically can’t be running and gunning constantly. Adding to the fact that his goal isn’t to try and wipe out groups of infected en masse, but deliver Ellie to the Fireflies safely. This leads Joel and Ellie to often choose the safer route or take a more calculated approach to groups of people and the infected. This seems to ground The Last of Us closer to reality where the goal is to endure and survive however you can. In a world where most people aren’t built like super soldiers, the reality of it all is, in a scenario where there is an apocalyptic global pandemic, we too would try our best to stay safe and survive.

In the latest episode of The Last of Us (episode 3 titled “Long, Long Time”) we see Bill (played by Nick Offerman), a survivalist who is occupying what some would call a “doomsday bunker”, with entire walls of firearms, television screens showing security camera footage, and countless provisions. As his town is evacuated, he stays put and eventually takes over the whole town creating a fortress of solitude, riddled with traps, and weaponry to fend off any raiders and infected. Four years after the outbreak we are then introduced to a survivor named Frank (played by Murray Bartlett). We are then brought through their relationship over the next 16 years. Frank, who wants to fix up town stores, and keep up with lawn care, while Bill maintained a gruff persona and wanted to maintain a sense of security and toughness. We continue down their relationship path, showing Frank painting a portrait of Bill and them enjoying dinners together. This development and deviation from the game was a beautiful tale of love, and what it means to endure and survive outside of a survivalist scope. Bill, who was ready for the end of times, found a reason to live in his love and relationship with Frank. Jump to present year, Frank’s deteriorating health due presumably from cancer, shows a much softer Bill than we met at the beginning of the outbreak. Frank requests from Bill “One last good day.”, we are led through wonderful moments between the two as they have one last good day together before Frank’s life is ended. Their final scene together has Bill cook the meal he made for Frank when he first arrived at the compound, ending with a drink mix of wine and pills (“Enough to kill a horse!”). Bill and Frank share a last meal together and both drink their wine and retire to their bedroom upstairs, ending this tale of love, and Bill who found a reason to survive in the world outside of “just surviving”, found no more reason to continue without the person he was living for.

As we continue to navigate the story through the remaining episodes, I do hope they continue along the path of less action and more human experiences like we got with Bill and Frank. This can make the moments of violence feel more impactful and important. When we aren’t spoon fed hordes of infected, explosions and gun fights ad nauseam we are able to sit with those moments of violence and their impact on the characters and world around them more intentionally. The intentionality of violence as a way to develop a character seems to give more purpose to these moments, allowing us to see the changes in character relationships and personality. Causing death and witnessing death changes people, it changes dynamics between people, and to portray that within this show would be a refreshing experience from many years of violence focused post-apocalyptic survival with seemingly no repercussions of it all. To not be desensitized to the violence in a show and use it as a way to evoke emotion from the viewer and provide an experience where we are all enduring and surviving with the characters, gives us a more human connection to these characters as opposed to just viewing them as these action heroes/anti-heroes. To develop this relationship with the viewer ultimately can create an experience we often do not get when engaging with this sort of material. Humanity focused survival where characters think and act logically in respect to their current situation, approaching situations with caution as opposed to jumping right into any opportunity to fight and shoot. Ultimately the goal of characters being to endure and survive and find reason to keep doing so. When the world comes to an end what will you be looking for? Reasons for violence or reason to keep pushing forward and surviving, to keep going to try and find community in those who still remain, in finding the humanity of a situation that creates a world unlike anything we’ve experienced before. As The Last of Us shows, there are many reasons to keep going, love, family, to find a cure to a virus that caused a global pandemic, and sometimes the reason to keep on is to show others all the reasons to endure and survive in this world.

- F.A.